Posted on 04/19/2024 9:13:17 AM PDT by Kazan
The House speaker’s comments wrecked one of the far right’s most ridiculous, reprehensible tropes.
It was a remarkable moment: After introducing a package of bills that includes military aid to Ukraine, Mike Johnson flatly told reporters on Wednesday that enabling Ukraine to defend itself is in the best interests of America and the world. This surprised a lot of people who had wrongly assumed the House speaker was effectively functioning as a stooge for Vladimir Putin—and Donald Trump—and would thus slow-walk Ukraine aid to death before ever allowing a vote on it.
Johnson’s new stance has attracted a good deal of positive attention. But I want to highlight an aspect of it that’s been overlooked because it’s an important tell about the true state of MAGA ideology and what it’s demanding of Republicans these days.
“I really do believe the intel and the briefings that we’ve gotten,” Johnson said, in a moment that became a mini-speech. “I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed. I think he might go to the Balkans next. I think he might have a showdown with Poland, or one of our NATO allies.” If so, he added, we might find ourselves sending troops to defend allies from Putin later.
Did we really hear the speaker say that he believes what our intelligence services have told him about the long-term consequences of cutting off aid to Ukraine?
This is a direct challenge to the MAGA worldview in multiple ways. Johnson is treating Putin as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and acknowledging his broader imperialist designs, which is heresy to some MAGA Republicans. But he’s also flatly declaring that on these matters, the deep state is very much to be believed.
A big MAGA conceit is the idea that a nefarious deep-state network of senior federal bureaucrats, nongovernmental experts, and technocratic and managerial elites lurks behind the push to fund Ukraine—and that it’s making up lies about Russia’s war to create a pretext to fulfill a broader set of sinister globalist aims. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene recently tweeted this:
The Ukraine scam is up.
If our Republican majority in Congress funds Joe Biden’s war against Russia on behalf of Ukraine (because he’s a puppet on strings) then Republicans are tools of the foreign war loving deep state.
This is probably MAGA’s most elaborate exercise in up-is-down totalitarian-style propaganda of all: Biden is being manipulated by a deep-state “scam”—i.e., the idea that Ukraine is worth defending—to carry out a war against Russia, which has been magically transformed from aggressor to victim.
The horrible atrocities against Ukraine the world has witnessed, Putin’s declarations that the sovereign democracy of Ukraine isn’t a real country and shouldn’t exist, the consequent effort to erase it with murderous conquest—all of that disappears in this fog of MAGA propaganda. This sort of thing is why even some senior Republicans suggest that a number of House GOP lawmakers are operating under the influence of Russia.
Johnson’s affirmation that he believes our intelligence services on these matters is a direct rebuke to those MAGA tendencies.
The bills that GOP leaders have introduced—which are scheduled for votes on Saturday—are also surprisingly faithful to the intel agencies’ apparent understanding of this geopolitical moment. They include $61 billion in aid to Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel, funding for Taiwan, and humanitarian assistance, including for victims in Gaza, which is essential to winning the support of Democrats who will be needed when right-wing Republicans oppose the package.
Greene had threatened to hold a motion-to-vacate vote to oust Johnson if he moved forward with Ukraine aid. If so, there are signs that Democrats will vote to save Johnson if Ukraine aid passes. Either way, Johnson appears prepared to brave MAGA’s fury—and the word of U.S intelligence services is a key reason for it.
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with healthy skepticism of what our intelligence services are saying. That’s reasonable. After all, they contributed to whipping up the ultimately false assertions about weapons of mass destruction that helped justify the Iraq War.
But reasoned skepticism is not what MAGA Republicans are offering. Instead, they’re pushing carefully choreographed propaganda that seeks to entirely erase Russian agency from the story of the conflict and to transform Ukraine’s allies into the true warmongers here.
Greene’s effort at this is obvious. Then you have Donald Trump Jr., who tweeted that the aid bills will “hurt my father’s ability to negotiate an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine” if he’s reelected president, whereas “globalist” Republicans who support the package want indefinite war.
But that’s absurd. As international relations professor Nicholas Grossman shows, the idea behind rhetoric like this—a ruse that other MAGA Republicans regularly employ—is to recast our choice as one between “peace” (which we’d attain by refraining from aiding Ukraine) and “war” (which we’re facilitating with Ukraine aid). In reality, withholding aid is not antiwar at all; it merely makes Russian conquest more likely to continue and succeed (which is perhaps the whole point of this framing).
Even supposedly shrewder MAGA Republicans play a version of this sleazy game. Ohio Senator J.D. Vance recently wrote a New York Times op-ed arguing that Ukraine is losing and our aid won’t give it what it needs in equipment (or soldiers) to prevail. Democrats have effectively rebutted those claims. But Vance also slips into his piece the idea that in providing aid, “we”—meaning the United States—would “prolong a long and bloody war,” and suggests the primary obstacle to peace is President Biden’s unwillingness to negotiate toward it.
But how does Vance himself envision the war ending? Couldn’t it mean Russia gobbles up much or even all of Ukraine? Vance doesn’t say, beyond insisting we should forget about Ukraine regaining all of its stolen territory. Thus he too frames the choice as one between peace (ending aid) and war (continuing it). Presto: Opposing the package suddenly becomes the antiwar position, and being for the package becomes the pro-war one. That’s slippery, dishonest rhetorical trickery that you’d think is below Times standards.
This is the sort of deceitfulness that Johnson has effectively taken on. By affirming what abandoning Ukraine would really mean, and stressing that the deep state is telling lawmakers the truth about it, Johnson has for the time being taken a stance against one of MAGA’s most cherished—and most toxic—propaganda tropes. No wonder Greene is beside herself with rage.
So in other words Mikey, Putin will take over Europe and then come for us.
Got it. If that’s the case, at this point we should just unload all our 6,000+ nukes at him. I mean, that’s the logical end of the nonsense you’re spouting.
What a disappointment this Johnson character turned out to be.
***I would rather that happen and deal with it down the line but for now spend our money here and now in America.***
Prevention is always cheaper and better than the cure. It’s your kind of thinking which allowed Nazi Germany to arm itself to the teeth and cause a war which killed over 65 million people.
Johnson is a democrat and a traitor.
He will rot in hell like OJ.
https://babylonbee.com/news/mike-johnson-unzips-skinsuit-revealing-he-was-kevin-mccarthy-all-along
***He wanted NATO off his back and the usual old “..used to be OURS..” - territory dispute.. that’s all.***
Putin knows NATO is a DEFENSIVE military alliance and poses no threat of taking any offensive action against Russia. The real reason he wants to maintain a strong hold on Ukraine is because if they move westward and start to have a more western European style democracy, an improved economy and a much better standard of living, then his people will look at that and think “we want some of that too”. (Notice how keen Russian troops were to steal toilets, washing machines and tumble-dryers etc when they rolled into Ukrainian civilian areas?)
(Notice how keen Russian troops were to steal toilets, washing machines and tumble-dryers etc when they rolled into Ukrainian civilian areas?)
If we sent any of our troops, we will have entered an active conflict with Russia, one of the very few nuclear superpowers.
We haven’t directly fought the Russians or the USSR, ever. It’s been through proxies.
So, no, we never could have gone to war over a former Soviet country that directly borders Russia (unlike Cuba, which is 90 miles away from us, and we panicked). Ukraine is not in NATO and the only agreement we have over Ukraine says we’ll simply talk with Russia.
No, no troops and no money.
Then Putin isn’t a real threat and we shouldn’t BE there, period.
Correct.
You only need to see Poland's recent spending spree on military equipment to know they actually take the threat from Russia very seriously:
Poland Becomes a Defense Colossus - Poland has launched a huge and historic expansion of its military.
Also, I wonder why Sweden and Finland joined NATO in such a hurry if Russia is no threat.
But, of course, you'll ignore all that.
***Hey Zeeper, that was Germany after WW2.***
No. That was in 2022-2024. The standard of living in Russia outside of Moscow and Saint Petersburg is terrible for most people. Of course, Vlad and his ultra-rich Oligarch pals don’t care.
Are they also spending what the one lone Poland is spending?
Not at all. They are looking for free stuff without contributing anything.
Everyone wants a free lunch from the US’s dinnerware.
Even Germany isn’t caring.
Agree but how many will remember them at their election time.
It’s how this crap gets started taking the free cheese.
It’s hard and sad to say but just look at the facts and data and it’s the only conclusion you can come to now
Absolutely right.
oKay, you realize you're using the exact same argument that the globalists use to justification of the United States? 1. the powers that be determined that the causes of ww1 and ww2 was nationalism. So they determined that if they didn't allow any one nation to become strong they would never have another world war. 2. Further, the biggest problem was colonial powers. End colonialism then end nationalism. 3. So the answer to world peace is to destroy any country that is strong. 4. Ukraine is NOT about preventing harm to Ukraine. Ukraine is about destroying nationalistic Russia AND Nationalistinc United States. That's why the deep state is constantly linking MAGA and Russia. Becuase to them they are one and the same. They stand in the way of the perceived utopia that will be achieved once they get rid of the concept of strong nations.
Welcome back Dixiecrats!!!
It was about time Mike Johnson awakened from his hippie-commie indirect pro-soviet behavior.
Common sense got to him!
Not helping our allies Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan to resist against America’s traditional enemy : The Axis of Evil (Iran/Hamas-Russia-North Korea-China), was an act against Christianity. Letting people be slaughtered by imperialist neo-soviets is inexcusable.
Mike Johnson finally listened to God.
Good choice.
“ Mike Johnson finally listened to God.
Good choice.”
*************************************
Well, Frenchie, according to you God hates America and loves Ukraine. Where does your beloved France fit into God’s order of preference.
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